La Chica Nueva
by Fairy
Summary: OK, this is just something quick that I wrote out of pure boredom. Don't expect anything great.


La Chica Nueva 

La Chica Nueva

by Fairy

Ana whistled as she walked down the crowded cobblestone street, trying to act like she had lived there all her life. She had just gotten off the train from Virginia to New York City. Her bare feet made little sound over the bustling crowd. She stared in amazement with her big brown eyes at the sights of the city. People of every shape and size, buildings taller than she thought imaginable. It was amazing!

Her eyes fell upon a tall boy wearing a black cowboy hat. He shouted over the never-ceasing hullabaloo, calling out false headlines. She didn't know they were false, but it didn't matter to her anyhow. The only thing she noticed was his apparent charm. He was handsome and strong looking. Definitely lower class, but it didn't make a difference anyway, seeing as how Ana wasn't exactly an upper class girl either.

__

Wow, nosotros no tenemos a chicos como que en Virginia!, thought Ana. She often spoke and thought in Spanish, although she did know English. She came from a long line of Spanish speakers. Her mother didn't even know English!

Ana felt a tear burning in her eye at the thought of her mother. She had run away from home to save her mother's life. It was just Ana and her mother in the small shack they called home. Ana's father was dead and she had no siblings. They had nearly starved to death and Ana finally decided it was time to leave and let her mother live a little better. _¿Cómo podría haber sido yo tan estúpido?_, Ana thought to herself. _Yo nunca sobreviviré._

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around to find herself staring into the hazel eyes of the cowboy hat wearing young man. "Oh!" She gasped.

"Ya ok, miss?" He asked her. She nodded silently, her eyes wide with shock at being noticed in this crowd by an extremely handsome newsboy. "Whatcha doin' all alone heah?" He asked. She smiled at his accent.

"Just arrived." She explained.

"I see." He said. His pale lips formed a frown. "Ain't safe fer ya ta be walkin' all alone in dis city. You ain't from da city is ya?" Ana shook her head. "Ya got a name?" The boy asked her.

"Ana." She said softly. He nodded.

"Nice ta meet ya Ana. I'se Jack." Ana smiled.

"And what do you suppose I do about my predicament? I have no money, no food and nowhere to stay." Ana told him, amazed at her own openness with this stranger. She felt oddly comforted by him, as if she'd known him for years.

Jack had noticed how thin and pale she was. He had also noticed her beauty. "You can come wit' me ta da Lodgin' House wit' da newsies. I'se shoah we could find some woik fer ya."

Ana pondered it for a moment. "I guess." She said. _Este tenido mejor lo vale._ , She thought.

They soon arrived at a small brick building. A wooden sign above the door read _Newsboy Lodging House_. _Aha! I knew he was a newsboy!, _She thought in English. Jack twisted the copper doorknob and pushed the door open, holding it for Ana. She smiled but didn't thank him.

In the lobby were ten or twelve boys playing cards, talking, arguing, it was quite a commotion. Ana laughed as a brown haired boy in glasses was pushed off his chair by his friend. His bowler hat toppled off his head and landed on the lap of a blond boy in silver spectacles. Jack could tell she'd like it at the Lodging House.

"You can stay if ya want ta be a newsie." Jack told her. She nodded.

"I'd love that." She grinned.

"Want to meet some of da newsies? We'se got goils heah too, dey's in da othah room." He explained.

"Sure!" Ana said gleefully. She followed Jack to the far side of the lobby where she was introduced to Mush, Kid Blink, Racetrack, Specs (the boy in the bowler hat), Dutchy (the blond in spectacles) and finally to Bumlets. She noticed that Bumlets looked of Hispanic descent, so she said, "Hola."

Bumlets smiled. "¿Qué es su nombre?" He said. It had been ages since he'd spoken in Spanish with a newsie.

"Me llamo Ana." She replied.

"What?!" Jack cried, puzzled.

"He asked me what my name was." Ana told Jack.

"And she said her name was Ana." Bumlets added.

Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Let me introduce ya to da goils. You two can talk latah."

Ana and Jack walked down a hallway with three doors. One she supposed was the boy's bunkroom and one was the girl's. The other she was unsure of. Jack led her into the room on the right. Five girls sat talking, some on chairs and stools, others on the floor or their bunks. They looked up as Ana and Jack entered.

"Heya Jackyboy!" Said a girl in a calico dress and a hat like Ana had seen on several of the newsboys that she commonly knew as a newsboy cap.

"We'se got a new goil heah." Jack said. "Dis is Ana." A few of the girls waved and there were murmurs of "Heya Ana." and "Hi." Ana just smiled shyly. "She's gonna be a newsie." Jack explained to the newsgirls. Then he introduced her to each of them. She noticed that one girl, whom Jack said was known as Elf, was hardly older than ten. _Poor thing_, Ana thought, _So young._

Ana yawned. It was getting late. "Maybe I should go to bed, Jack. I'm tired." A few of the girls nodded and yawned and rubbed their sleepy eyes. Jack nodded and left. Ana climbed into bed under the girl in the calico dress who she now knew as Actress. She said a quick good night to Izzy, Actress, Elf, Poppy and Freckles before climbing under the cool white sheets. Her eyelids fluttered and then closed and she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Ana was woken by Izzy, a Japanese girl of about seventeen years. Ana dragged herself out of bed and into the girl's washroom. There she pulled her black curls into a ponytail and splashed her face with water.

"Mornin'." Jack said as she entered the lobby. "Ready fer ya foist day a' woik?"

"Yep." Ana smiled.

They set off together, Jack with a new friend and Ana with not only a new chum, but with a new sense of hope.

Guide to Spanish Phrases:

La Chica Nueva- The New Girl

Wow, nosotros no tenemos a chicos como que en Virginia!- Wow! We don't have boys like that in Virginia!

¿Cómo podría haber sido yo tan estúpido? - How could I have been so stupid?

Yo nunca sobreviviré. - I'll never survive.

Este tenido mejor lo vale. - This had better be worth it.


End file.
